WOMAN’S WORLD.

Taranaki Daily News, 25 November 1922, Page 10

WOMAN’S WORLD.

MATERNAL MORTALITY. MEDDLESOME MIDWIFERY, OPERATIONS ON WOMEN. (By a Medical Man in Auckland Herald.) Much prominence has been given recently to the prese to the most important matter of maternal mortality, and it haa ibeen shown that the maternal mortality rate in New Zealand is excessive. The Board of Health has asked a famous specialist of world-wide repute to give his opinion (vide New Zealand Journal, April, 1922). Following is a brief summary of this specialist’s evidence:— This obstetrician was for many years the master of the greatest maternity hospital in the world, where he supervised over 44,000 confinements. His •26 years’ experience in woman’s diseases is equally great, so we can rely very much, on his statements. He attributes the state of affairs chiefly to operative interference. He says the percentage of cases in which there is interference is many times greater than is necessary. He also states that gynecological and obstetrical operations of every degree of gravity are done by the general practitioner, even where expert assistance is available. The deaths from septic infection are very great. Continuing, he points out. that labour is a physiological (normal) process under normal conditions until we interfere with its course. Such interference turns it into a pathological ( abnormal, diseased) process where complications of all kinds may occur. The chief cause of sepsis ( or poisoning) then, is operative interference.

Death is not the only result of sepsis. Many survive, but at the expense of being invalids al! their lives. Many are unable to’ have further children. Many bf the serious diseases women suffer from are due to interference at confinement. .

In this country the percentage of artificial delivery by instruments is between 50 and 70 per cent. The proportion in this famous hospital referred to it only 4 per cent. The hospital has a larger proportion of abnormal cases than usual, yet interference (in this country) of healthy, well-nourished women is done 12 to 17 times more often than in the hospital. The mortality in this hospital is much less. THE DOCTOR’S RESPONSIBILITY.

In the St. Helen’s Hospital artificial delivery is performed in only 1 per cent, of the cases. Why, then, should it be necessary to operate in 50 per cent, to 70 per cent, of the cases- outside the hosuital? The wishes of the patients may be the cause of much interference, but the conscientious doctor should take no notice of that. If 'he explains to the woman the risks of interferwee she will be patient. On no account should the doctor, against his conscience and better knowledge, be guilty of unnecessary interference. Neither would an honourable doctor use instruments to hasten things to save his own time. If all normal and he has urgent, work elsewhere, he is wiser to leave the patient alone with the nurse. She is likely to take less harm. Beware, then of the practitioner who has the reputation of being "good with the instruments.” They should be very rarely used. Beware also of the doctor who blames the nurse if things go <rong. A great teacher said to lu& pupils “Ninety-five per cent, of women will deliver themselves normally in spite of you, if you will let them.” This does not mean that a medical man is- unnecessary. The doctor’s duties are to make careful examinations, to exclude every abnormality, and to be present at the actual birth. . Another famous specialist advised ms pupils “not to carry instruments with them, because they had a way of slipping out oi the bag on to the patient.Do not insist on the constant "attendance of a busy doctor throughout labour if it is normal, as it has, a way of making it become abnormal.”

HASTE MEANS DANiGER. Let women then realise that delivery under normal conditions is not dangerous, but a natural process. But delivery under hurried conditions is dangerous. Apart from maternity work, the famous doctor draws attention to the dangerous amount of operative work on women in this country. This i« frequently done by the general practitioners who have not the requisite knowledge and skill. Possibly one highly trained gynecologist in each of the four centres could do all the necessary serious special -operations for the whole Dominion. Yet scores of inexperienced o-eneral practitioners are daily operating on woman. When will the women wake up and realise that it requires years ot experience in large women’s hospitals before one is equipped to do this work. The more experienced the surgeon, the less frequently will he operate. To imagine that the general practitioner can keep himself skilled in all the special branches of surgery is absurd. He should send the patient to the specialist to give her the best cliqnce. . ’Great uni unneeossary , distress is caused to numerous women in this eounwho spend most of their time in the try. Many neurasthenics arc created doctors’ consulting rooms; and their lives are a. misery to themselves and to those in contact with them.

8 THE BRIDES OF TO-DAY. MORE CIVIL WEDDINGS. CHURCH OUT OF ‘FAVOUR. 'POSITION IN BRITAIN. The church wedding is going °dt fashion. Modern brides are forsaking the altar for the prosaic register office, and gradually the romance of the old wedding ceremony is being eradicated from the life of the nation, says a London paper. , , ~ ~ In place of the white-clad bride, the I gaily-decked bridesmaids, and the show- [ era of confetti, comes the drab picture

of a couple, dressed for travelling, darting from the door of a dreary office in a side-street to a waiting taxi at the kerb. Almost a quarter of tjie total number of marriages in this country take place in register offices. One-third of the total of London weddings are register office affairs-. The figure has been jumping steadily upward the last few years, and is still advancing. The most recent figures available at the General Register Office show that in one year London provided just over 50,000 weddings At 16,000 of them there was no music—only the dry tones- of the register. In 1800, when wedding bells and bridal coaches were considered well-nigh indispensable, there were only 30,000 civil ceremonies in the whole of England and Wales. At the close of the war—in 1910 —that number had been nearly trebled. It was over 85,000. The total number of weddings in the country had not grown in anything like the same proportion. But the men who count weddings- and tabulate the results at Somerset House point out that in the country at least things are different. In "truly rural” counties, like Huntingdon, 62 civil ceremonies is a year’s average —out of anything from three to four hundred weddings. It is the same in Rutland, where only one-tenth of the brides "take cover” at the registrar’s, and in Westmoreland, where less than a twelfth are content with an office ceremony. "MIXED MARRIAGES.” Various reasons for the decline in church marriages are advanced. “There has been a very big increase recently in marriages between people holding different religious creeds,” said a registrar. “To avoid either party’s principles being offended they agree, upon a civil ceremony. During the war, when so many hasty marriages were contracted, there was a rush on register offices to avoid the elaborate preparations necessary to church weddings-. The habit seems to have survived the war. It is, in the main, celebrities in various walks of life who seek the register office in preference to the church to-day. people—dukes, earls-, and peers —and theatrical stars seem to shun the blaze of publicity surrounding a church wedding. They prefer the quiet of the office. Many old conventions have gone by the hoard. People who regard it almost as a disgrace to be married in a register office were once common; to day they are few. The girl we used to know would not have considered herself properly married unless she had been led to*the altar, but your modern business girl is quite content to don a smart costume and take her vow before one or two. close friends. She regards the registrar as a boon and a blessing, for the -simple ceremony is less tiring than the ordeal of facing a huge congregation. She likefl to ‘get it over without any fuss.’

A LESS SACRED VIEW. "One feature I am happy to point out. Contrary to popular opinion, it has been my experience that there are fewer* divorcee arising out of register office marriages than out of unions which have been solemnised in church.” The clergy, naturally, do not look with favour on the modern tendency. “I think there i<? no doubt that the cult of the register-office wedding has led to a less sacred view being taken of the marriage contract,” said the Rev. Clarence May, of St. Thomas’ Church, Regent Street. “This is practically marked among the intellectual classes, and especially among intellectual women. Educated people—and it i-s they wno favour the register-office wedding—seem to look upon marriage rather in the light of a provisional arrangement, to 'be ratified if suitable, than a binding and sacred contract for life. « “This, in my opinion is because they do not take the same sacred vows to the registrar that they are called upon to pronounce in a place of worship.”

WEALTHY WIDOW’S END. DOCTOR UNDER SUSPICION. ATTEMPTED. SUICIDE CHARGE. London, November 5. “Dearest mate, don’t blame yourself. I’m going to sleep with your letter next my heart?’ This was an extract from a letter from Dr. Hartzhorne to his wife, read in the Police Court where Hartzhorne was committed for trial on a charge of attempted suicide. A wealthy widow, Mra. Jelfs, left him a fortune. Her body was exhumed and examined for poison. The letter, which was written on October 17th, went on: “After ail, 1 am 63, and have had my time. I am too shaken, and I feel 1 cannot bear a public trial, so I am making my bow instead. It would be quite easy, but that I am leaving you.” The prosecution referred to the fact that Dr. Hartzhorne bad signed the death certificate of Mrs. Jelfs, and that when the Coroner’s officer called seeking particulars, he said, “If my medical skill is challenged I have nothing to say.”

FINGER NAILS TELL FORTUNES. You can tell your fortune from your finger nails. If you possess wide, short mtils. a nature is indicated; long, wklo nails are said to be signs of deceit and craft. If their colour is deep red this makes matters worse! Short, narrow nails often accompany a childish character; they indicate sweetness and quietness. The' ideal nail is longer than rt ia broad, of firm texture, and deep pink in coqour. A half-moon of white should appear at each baso. Specks of white can usually be put down to some illness or nervous complaint. A cluster in the shape of a half-moon running from base to tip is supposed to be a. sign of good fortune, and it is said that Cleopatra, the famous Egyptian queen, had such marks on her* fingers at the height of her power.

DANCE PARTNERS TO GO. Hostesses arc beginning to decline the requests of euosts invited tn a dance that they may bring a dancing partner. Should the normanent “dancing partner” system die out, one of the meet

curious and most unromantic social customs of the last quarter-century will pass from English life. In the opinion of many people the dance partner habit is a bad one from a social point of view. “If the dance partner system continues, the number of marriages will be affected,” a dancing teacher told a Daily Mail reporter. -Dancing partners, who as a rule have neither a heart nor a brain interest in each other, do not marry each other. “The dance partner system prevents young men and women from meeting each other as they did in the old days, when so many marriages arose from ball-room friendships.”

ABOUT MANNERS. POINTS OF ETIQUETTE. To notice in any way a deformity or misfortune to the person id gross and unfeeling. To wrangle with one’s inferiors is undignified; to insult them is coarse. As assumed air of importance will involve you in derision. Display of knowledge is merely pedantry. The truly learned are the most humble. It is gross violation of etiquette to contradict, anyone. To speak disparagingly of a woman is not commendable. It ia better to be deprived of company than form low associations. Egotism is one of the most insidious and common of faults. To enter a room noisily, slam the door, or walk heavily indicates a -lack of the silken sense. Violent or abrupt movements in company are breaches of etiquette. Neglect to call upon your friends is at once a breacji of etiquette and an injury. It is ill bred after having dressed yourself to pay any further attention to your attire. It is an offence to rise to take leave of a company in the midst of an interesting conversation though you have no personal interest in it. When is disrespectful to the hostess for one to offer to another tne seat assigned to himself. It is at least inconsiderate for a gentleman to discuss his business affairs with a lady, or for her to weary him with a recital of her domestic frictions. Ladies and gentlemen not nearly related or engaged, may exchange books, music and confectionery. Costly presents are decidedly out of place. It is etiquette on entering a room filled with people to bow slightly to the company in general before addressing individuals.

It is polite on taking your seat at a meal to make a respectful recognition of the one who is presiding. It is bad taste to deprecate the value of a gift or to represent it as useless to one’s self. It is ill bred to speak of gifts you granted. It is rude to be guilty of personalities in conversation. Personal remarks, no matter how keen of witty or humorous, cannot be anything but ill-bred. It is proper for a gentleman to hand a ladv a chair, open the door for her, to pick up anything that is in her way, even although she be an entire stranger to him. It is etiquette for a gentleman in passing a lady where he must stand aside to give her space to remove his hat and slightly incline his head. In such a case the lady should acknowledge the eourtesy by a slight bow.